Operation Pedestal The Fleet That Battled To Malta 1942

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Operation Pedestal: The Fleet That Battled to Malta, 1942

Author : Max Hastings
Publisher : Harper Perennial
ISBN 13 : 9780062980144
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (81 download)

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Book Synopsis Operation Pedestal: The Fleet That Battled to Malta, 1942 by : Max Hastings

Download or read book Operation Pedestal: The Fleet That Battled to Malta, 1942 written by Max Hastings and published by Harper Perennial. This book was released on 2023-04-18 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An eye-level view of mortal danger set against a major inflection point during World War II." -- Wall Street Journal Now in paperback, renowned historian Max Hastings recreates one of the most thrilling events of World War II: Operation Pedestal, the British action to save its troops from starvation on Malta--an action-packed tale of courage, fortitude, loss, and triumph against all odds. In 1940, Hitler had two choices when it came to the Mediterranean region: stay out, or commit sufficient forces to expel the British from the Middle East. Against his generals' advice, the Fuhrer committed a major strategic blunder. He ordered the Wehrmacht to seize Crete, allowing the longtime British bastion of Malta to remain in Allied hands. Over the fall of 1941, the Royal Navy and RAF, aided by British intelligence, used the island to launch a punishing campaign against the Germans, sinking more than 75 percent of their supply ships destined for North Africa. But by spring 1942, the British lost their advantage. In April and May, the Luftwaffe dropped more bombs on Malta than London received in the blitz. A succession of British attempts to supply and reinforce the island by convoy during the spring and summer of 1942 failed. British submarines and surface warships were withdrawn, and the remaining forces were on the brink of starvation. Operation Pedestal chronicles the ensuing British mission to save those troops. Over twelve days in August, German and Italian forces faced off against British air and naval fleets in one of the fiercest battles of the war, while ships packed with supplies were painstakingly divided and dispersed. In the end only a handful of the Allied ships made it, most important among them the SS Ohio, carrying the much-needed fuel to the men on Malta. As Hastings makes clear, while the Germans claimed victory, it was the British who ultimately prevailed, for Malta remained a crucial asset that helped lead to the Nazis' eventual defeat. While the Royal Navy never again attempted an operation on such scale, Hasting argues that without that August convoy the British on Malta would not have survived. In the cruel accountancy of war, the price was worth paying.

Operation Pedestal

Author : Max Hastings
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0062980165
Total Pages : 464 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (629 download)

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Book Synopsis Operation Pedestal by : Max Hastings

Download or read book Operation Pedestal written by Max Hastings and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Renowned historian Max Hastings recreates one of the most thrilling events of World War II: Operation Pedestal, the British action to save its troops from starvation on Malta—an action-packed tale of courage, fortitude, loss, and triumph against all odds. In 1940, Hitler had two choices when it came to the Mediterranean region: stay out, or commit sufficient forces to expel the British from the Middle East. Against his generals’ advice, the Fuhrer committed a major strategic blunder. He ordered the Wehrmacht to seize Crete, allowing the longtime British bastion of Malta to remain in Allied hands. Over the fall of 1941, the Royal Navy and RAF, aided by British intelligence, used the island to launch a punishing campaign against the Germans, sinking more than 75 percent of their supply ships destined for North Africa. But by spring 1942, the British lost their advantage. In April and May, the Luftwaffe dropped more bombs on Malta than London received in the blitz. A succession of British attempts to supply and reinforce the island by convoy during the spring and summer of 1942 failed. British submarines and surface warships were withdrawn, and the remaining forces were on the brink of starvation. Operation Pedestal chronicles the ensuing British mission to save those troops. Over twelve days in August, German and Italian forces faced off against British air and naval fleets in one of the fiercest battles of the war, while ships packed with supplies were painstakingly divided and dispersed. In the end only a handful of the Allied ships made it, most important among them the SS Ohio, carrying the much-needed fuel to the men on Malta. As Hastings makes clear, while the Germans claimed victory, it was the British who ultimately prevailed, for Malta remained a crucial asset that helped lead to the Nazis’ eventual defeat. While the Royal Navy never again attempted an operation on such scale, Hasting argues that without that August convoy the British on Malta would not have survived. In the cruel accountancy of war, the price was worth paying.

The Ohio and Malta

Author : Michael Pearson
Publisher : Pen and Sword Maritime
ISBN 13 : 9781848845213
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (452 download)

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Book Synopsis The Ohio and Malta by : Michael Pearson

Download or read book The Ohio and Malta written by Michael Pearson and published by Pen and Sword Maritime. This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published: Barnsley: Leo Cooper, 2004.

Operation Chastise

Author : Max Hastings
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0062953621
Total Pages : 415 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (629 download)

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Book Synopsis Operation Chastise by : Max Hastings

Download or read book Operation Chastise written by Max Hastings and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-02-18 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Best Nonfiction of 2020 -- Kirkus Reviews One of the most lauded historians of our time returns to the Second World War in this magnificent retelling of the awe-inspiring raid on German dams conducted by the Royal Army Force’s 617 Squadron. The attack on Nazi Germany’s dams on May 17, 1943, was one of the most remarkable feats in military history. The absurdly young men of the Royal Air Force’s 617 Squadron set forth in cold blood and darkness, without benefit of electronic aids, to fly lumbering heavy bombers straight and level towards a target at a height above the water less than the length of a bowling alley. Yet this story—and the later wartime experience of the 617 Squadron—has never been told in full. Max Hastings takes us back to the May 1943 raid to reveal how the truth of that night is considerably different from the popularized account most people know. The RAF had identified the Ruhr dams as strategic objectives as far back as 1938; in those five years Wing Commander Guy Gibson formed and trained the 617 Squadron. Hastings observes that while the dropping of Wallis’s mines provided the dramatic climax, only two of the eight aircraft lost came down over the dams—the rest were shot down on the flight to, or back from, the mission. And while the 617 Squadron’s valor is indisputable, the ultimate industrial damage caused by the dam raid was actually rather modest. In 1943, these brave men caught the imagination of the world and uplifted the weary spirits of the British people. Their achievement unnerved the Nazi high command, and caused them to expend large resources on dam defenses—making the mission a success. An example of Churchill’s “military theatre” at its best, what 617 Squadron did was an extraordinary and heroic achievement, and a triumph of British ingenuity and technology—a story to be told for generations to come. Operation Chastise includes three 8-page black-and-white photo inserts and 6 maps.

Dear Bob

Author : Martha Bolton
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN 13 : 149683268X
Total Pages : 329 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (968 download)

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Book Synopsis Dear Bob by : Martha Bolton

Download or read book Dear Bob written by Martha Bolton and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2021-03-02 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2021 Golden Scroll Awards for Memoir of the Year and Christian Market Book of the Year awarded by the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association FIRST PLACE WINNER IN THE MEMOIR CATEGORY OF THE 2022 SELAH AWARDS For five decades, comedian, actor, singer, dancer, and entertainer Bob Hope (1903–2003) traveled the world performing before American and Allied troops and putting on morale-boosting USO shows. Dear Bob . . . : Bob Hope’s Wartime Correspondence with the G.I.s of World War II tells the story of Hope’s remarkable service to the fighting men and women of World War II, collecting personal letters, postcards, packages, and more sent back and forth among Hope and the troops and their loved ones back home. Soldiers, nurses, wives, and parents shared their innermost thoughts, swapped jokes, and commiserated with the “G.I.s’ best friend” about war, sacrifice, lonely days, and worrisome, silent nights. The Entertainer of the Century performed for millions of soldiers in person, in films, and over the radio. He visited them in the hospitals and became not just a pal but their link to home. This unforgettable collection of letters and images, many of which remained in Hope’s personal files throughout his life and now reside at the Library of Congress, capture a personal side of both writer and recipient in a very special and often-emotional way. This volume heralds the voices of those servicemen and women whom Hope entertained and who, it is clear, delighted and inspired him.

Hitler's Pre-emptive War

Author : Henrik O. Lunde
Publisher : Casemate
ISBN 13 : 1612000452
Total Pages : 616 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (12 download)

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Book Synopsis Hitler's Pre-emptive War by : Henrik O. Lunde

Download or read book Hitler's Pre-emptive War written by Henrik O. Lunde and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2009-05-11 with total page 616 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An “excellent” history of the often overlooked WWII campaign in which Hitler secured a vital resource lifeline for the Third Reich (Library Journal). After Hitler conquered Poland and was still fine-tuning his plans against France, the British began to exert control over the coastline of neutral Norway, an action that threatened to cut off Germany’s iron-ore conduit to Sweden and outflank from the start its hegemony on the Continent. The Germans responded with a dizzying series of assaults, using every tool of modern warfare developed in the previous generation. Airlifted infantry, mountain troops, and paratroopers were dispatched to the north, seizing Norwegian strongpoints while forestalling larger but more cumbersome Allied units. The German navy also set sail, taking a brutal beating at the hands of Britannia, but ensuring with its sacrifice that key harbors would be held open for resupply. As dive-bombers soared overhead, small but elite German units traversed forbidding terrain to ambush Allied units trying to forge inland. At Narvik, some six thousand German troops battled twenty thousand French and British until the Allies were finally forced to withdraw by the great disaster in France, which had then gotten underway. Henrik Lunde, a native Norwegian and former US Special Operations colonel, has written the most objective account to date of a campaign in which twentieth-century military innovation found its first fertile playing field.

Stalingrad

Author : Antony Beevor
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101153563
Total Pages : 560 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (11 download)

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Book Synopsis Stalingrad by : Antony Beevor

Download or read book Stalingrad written by Antony Beevor and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1999-05-01 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Battle of Stalingrad was not only the psychological turning point of World War II: it also changed the face of modern warfare. From Antony Beevor, the internationally bestselling author of D-Day and The Battle of Arnhem. In August 1942, Hitler's huge Sixth Army reached the city that bore Stalin's name. In the five-month siege that followed, the Russians fought to hold Stalingrad at any cost; then, in an astonishing reversal, encircled and trapped their Nazi enemy. This battle for the ruins of a city cost more than a million lives. Stalingrad conveys the experience of soldiers on both sides, fighting in inhuman conditions, and of civilians trapped on an urban battlefield. Antony Beevor has itnerviewed survivors and discovered completely new material in a wide range of German and Soviet archives, including prisoner interrogations and reports of desertions and executions. As a story of cruelty, courage, and human suffering, Stalingrad is unprecedented and unforgettable. Historians and reviewers worldwide have hailed Antony Beevor's magisterial Stalingrad as the definitive account of World War II's most harrowing battle.

Dam Busters

Author : James Holland
Publisher : Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN 13 : 0802193064
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (21 download)

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Book Synopsis Dam Busters by : James Holland

Download or read book Dam Busters written by James Holland and published by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.. This book was released on 2013-11-04 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the British-made bombs, Upkeep and Highball, successfully dropped on Nazi dams “has never been told in such depth before” (Daily Mail, UK). The night of May 16, 1943: Nineteen specially adapted Lancaster bombers take off from an RAF airfield in Lincolnshire, England, each with a huge nine-thousand-pound cylindrical bomb strapped underneath it. Their mission: to destroy three hydroelectric dams that power the Third Reich’s war machine. It was a suicide mission from the outset. First the men had to fly extremely low, at night, and in tight formation over miles of enemy-occupied territory. Then they had to drop with pinpoint precision a complicated spinning cylindrical bomb that had never before been used operationally. More than that, the entire operation had to be put together in less than ten weeks in order to hit the dams when water levels were still high enough for the bombs to be effective. The visionary aviation engineer Barnes Wallis hadn’t even drawn up plans for his concept when the bouncing bomb was green-lighted. What followed was an incredible race against time that, despite numerous setbacks, became one of the most successful and significant bombing raids of all time. “Holland has delved into the new trove” of declassified documents “to shed light on this weapons program, the politics of its development and the eventual mission” (The Wall Street Journal). “An impeccably researched work in the style of a fast-paced techno-thriller.” —Publishers Weekly “Extremely detailed but never dull . . . Holland offers a definitive, nuts-and-bolts history.” —Kirkus Reviews “A well-written study of engineering and invention operating under great pressure. . . . For all World War II history buffs.” —Library Journal, starred review

Tin Can Titans

Author : John Wukovits
Publisher : Da Capo Press
ISBN 13 : 0306824310
Total Pages : 489 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (68 download)

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Book Synopsis Tin Can Titans by : John Wukovits

Download or read book Tin Can Titans written by John Wukovits and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2017-03-14 with total page 489 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An epic narrative of World War II naval action that brings to life the sailors and exploits of the war's most decorated destroyer squadron. When Admiral William Halsey selected Destroyer Squadron 21 (Desron 21) to lead his victorious ships into Tokyo Bay to accept the Japanese surrender, it was the most battle-hardened US naval squadron of the war. But it was not the squadron of ships that had accumulated such an inspiring resume; it was the people serving aboard them. Sailors, not metallic superstructures and hulls, had won the battles and become the stuff of legend. Men like Commander Donald MacDonald, skipper of the USS O'Bannon, who became the most decorated naval officer of the Pacific war; Lieutenant Hugh Barr Miller, who survived his ship's sinking and waged a one-man battle against the enemy while stranded on a Japanese-occupied island; and Doctor Dow "Doc" Ransom, the beloved physician of the USS La Vallette, who combined a mixture of humor and medical expertise to treat his patients at sea, epitomize the sacrifices made by all the men and women of World War II. Through diaries, personal interviews with survivors, and letters written to and by the crews during the war, preeminent historian of the Pacific theater John Wukovits brings to life the human story of the squadron that bested the Japanese in the Pacific and helped take the war to Tokyo.

The First Victory

Author : Andrew Stewart
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300208553
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis The First Victory by : Andrew Stewart

Download or read book The First Victory written by Andrew Stewart and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2016-01-01 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A riveting new account of the long-overlooked achievement of British-led forces who, against all odds, scored the first major Allied victory of the Second World War Surprisingly neglected in accounts of Allied wartime triumphs, in 1941 British and Commonwealth forces completed a stunning and important victory in East Africa against an overwhelmingly superior Italian opponent. A hastily formed British-led force, never larger than 70,000 strong, advanced along two fronts to defeat nearly 300,000 Italian and colonial troops. This compelling book draws on an array of previously unseen documents to provide both a detailed campaign history and a fresh appreciation of the first significant Allied success of the war. Andrew Stewart investigates such topics as Britain's African wartime strategy; how the fighting forces were assembled (most from British colonies, none from the U.S.); General Archibald Wavell's command abilities and his difficult relationship with Winston Churchill; the resolute Italian defense at Keren, one of the most bitterly fought battles of the entire war; the legacy of the campaign in East Africa; and much more.

Six Victories

Author : Vincent O'Hara
Publisher : Naval Institute Press
ISBN 13 : 1682474763
Total Pages : 341 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (824 download)

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Book Synopsis Six Victories by : Vincent O'Hara

Download or read book Six Victories written by Vincent O'Hara and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2019-10-15 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Six Victories examines one of the most interesting and instructive naval campaigns of World War II: the war on traffic in the Mediterranean during the fall and winter of 1941-42. It is a cautionary tale of how sea power was practiced, and how it shifted 180 degrees overnight. Based on British and Italian archival sources, the book emphasizes strategic context, the role of intelligence, and the campaign's logistics. In October 1941 the British Admiralty based a surface strike force in Malta to attack Axis sea lanes between Italy and Africa. Aided by Ultra intelligence, submarines, and bombers based in Malta, this force dominated the Central Mediterranean. From the end of October through the middle of December 1941, less than a third of the supplies shipped from Italian ports arrived in Libya. Shortages of ammunition and fuel finally compelled the Afrika Korps to retreat four hundred miles. Then, in the space of thirty hours, this all changed. First, Italian naval forces broke the blockade by fighting through a major convoy that arrived in time to blunt the British advance; next, the strike force plowed into a minefield laid by Italian cruisers; and finally, in a daring attack, Italian commandos crippled the Mediterranean Fleet's battleships in port. The swing in fortune was immediate and dramatic. Six Victories breaks new ground in the historiography of World War II. A compelling story, it relates lessons that are relevant today and should be required reading for all who practice the art of power at sea and for those who want to understand the intricate and interrelated factors that are the foundations of military success.

The Book Thieves

Author : Anders Rydell
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0735221235
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (352 download)

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Book Synopsis The Book Thieves by : Anders Rydell

Download or read book The Book Thieves written by Anders Rydell and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-02-06 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A chilling reminder of Hitler’s twisted power." —BBC For readers of The Monuments Men and The Hare with Amber Eyes, the story of the Nazis' systematic pillaging of Europe's libraries, and the small team of heroic librarians now working to return the stolen books to their rightful owners. While the Nazi party was being condemned by much of the world for burning books, they were already hard at work perpetrating an even greater literary crime. Through extensive new research that included records saved by the Monuments Men themselves—Anders Rydell tells the untold story of Nazi book theft, as he himself joins the effort to return the stolen books. When the Nazi soldiers ransacked Europe’s libraries and bookshops, large and small, the books they stole were not burned. Instead, the Nazis began to compile a library of their own that they could use to wage an intellectual war on literature and history. In this secret war, the libraries of Jews, Communists, Liberal politicians, LGBT activists, Catholics, Freemasons, and many other opposition groups were appropriated for Nazi research, and used as an intellectual weapon against their owners. But when the war was over, most of the books were never returned. Instead many found their way into the public library system, where they remain to this day. Now, Rydell finds himself entrusted with one of these stolen volumes, setting out to return it to its rightful owner. It was passed to him by the small team of heroic librarians who have begun the monumental task of combing through Berlin’s public libraries to identify the looted books and reunite them with the families of their original owners. For those who lost relatives in the Holocaust, these books are often the only remaining possession of their relatives they have ever held. And as Rydell travels to return the volume he was given, he shows just how much a single book can mean to those who own it.

Soldiers: Great Stories of War and Peace

Author : Max Hastings
Publisher : HarperCollins UK
ISBN 13 : 0008454248
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis Soldiers: Great Stories of War and Peace by : Max Hastings

Download or read book Soldiers: Great Stories of War and Peace written by Max Hastings and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2021-10-28 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘A gripping new collection from Max Hastings that puts you at the heart of the battle ... Compelling’ Daily Mail‘An unmissable read’ Sunday Times

Locust Summer

Author : David Allan-Petale
Publisher : Fremantle Press
ISBN 13 : 1925816370
Total Pages : 246 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (258 download)

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Book Synopsis Locust Summer by : David Allan-Petale

Download or read book Locust Summer written by David Allan-Petale and published by Fremantle Press. This book was released on 2021-07-02 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shortlisted for The Australian Vogel's Literary Award, Locust Summer celebrates the wide-open beauty of Australia's regions while exploring the heartbreaks that come from living on the land. On the cusp of summer, 1986, Rowan Brockman's mother asks if he can come home to Septimus in the Western Australian Wheatbelt to help with the harvest. Rowan's brother Albert, the natural heir to the farm, has died and Rowan's dad's health is failing. Although he longs to, there is no way that Rowan can refuse his mother's request as she prepares the farm for sale. This is the story of the final harvest - the story of a young man in a place he doesn't want to be, being given one last chance to make peace before the past, and those he has loved, disappear.

Enemies Within: Communists, the Cambridge Spies and the Making of Modern Britain

Author : Richard Davenport-Hines
Publisher : HarperCollins UK
ISBN 13 : 0007516681
Total Pages : 747 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (75 download)

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Book Synopsis Enemies Within: Communists, the Cambridge Spies and the Making of Modern Britain by : Richard Davenport-Hines

Download or read book Enemies Within: Communists, the Cambridge Spies and the Making of Modern Britain written by Richard Davenport-Hines and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2018-01-25 with total page 747 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What pushed Blunt, Burgess, Cairncross, Maclean and Philby into Soviet hands? With access to recently released papers and other neglected documents, this sharp analysis of the intelligence world examines how and why these men and others betrayed their country and what this cost Britain and its allies.

Somewhere in France, Somewhere in Germany

Author : Francis P. Sempa
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780761856085
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (56 download)

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Book Synopsis Somewhere in France, Somewhere in Germany by : Francis P. Sempa

Download or read book Somewhere in France, Somewhere in Germany written by Francis P. Sempa and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Francis P. Sempa tells the story of father's journey through the Second World War. Using letters, local newspaper articles, the 29th Division's After Action Reports, and books about the history of the 29th Division in World War II, Sempa traces his father's steps throughout battlefields of France and Germany.

Malta Convoys, 1940-1943

Author : Richard Woodman
Publisher : John Murray Pubs Limited
ISBN 13 : 9780719564086
Total Pages : 560 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (64 download)

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Book Synopsis Malta Convoys, 1940-1943 by : Richard Woodman

Download or read book Malta Convoys, 1940-1943 written by Richard Woodman and published by John Murray Pubs Limited. This book was released on 2003-02-01 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the day Mussolini's Italy declared war on Britain in June 1940, the island of Malta was under siege. Its strategic importance was obvious to both sides, blocking as it did the supply route across the Mediterranean from Italy to the Axis armies in North Africa. It had to be bombed out of existence by the Axis powers and preserved at all costs by the British. That Malta survived was due to the courage and fortitude of her people and to the dauntless determination of the Royal Navy and the Merchant Navy. Here Richard Woodman tells the full, terrifying story of how - at fearsome cost - the impossible was achieved.